Each week on Thursdays we'll be selecting one or two underclassmen to highlight as up-and-coming future stars of the sport.
Riley Tolson has hit the ground running at the high school level and already shows the potential for a major impact on the starting roster for Ocean City this fall. A team that entered the season with a preseason ranking of NJ No. 11.
The young star won the freshman race clocking 12:08 during the Cherokee Challenge on Saturday, which was good for 16th overall when combining the sophomore, junior, and senior races.
Tolson fit into the fourth spot on Ocean City's lineup on the merge, helping them rank first overall for the meet with 58 points to second-ranked Pingry School's 110.
Jack Tindall returned to the Cherokee Challenge a year removed from his record-setting run in the middle school race and set to take on his first high school competition.
Well he stood up to the challenge, not only did he lead all of New Jersey at the meet with his time of 9:54 but he also destroyed the freshmen course record of 10:09 by 15 seconds!
He was the third fastest of the entire meet when combining the upperclassman races, only behind two North Penn athletes visiting from Pennsylvania who won the junior and senior races.
His performance led the preseason NJ No. 4 ranked Cherokee squad to the top of the team score merge with 38 points, second was North Penn (PA) with 146!
